Author Archives: David Frank

Was this a federal trial or a Springsteen concert? Court officials tell me that people were lined up outside the Moakley Courthouse at 1:30 in the morning to get a seat inside the James “Whitey” Bulger trial. For the record, ...

Anthony M. Cardinale has been there practically from the beginning. It was the Boston lawyer’s motion, filed in the late 1990s during his representation of “Cadillac” Frank Salemme, that caused U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf to conclude that ...

It was a sad day at the Moakley Courthouse as word spread that Stephen Rakes had been found dead Wednesday afternoon. Rakes, 59, allegedly was confronted by James “Whitey” Bulger during an extortion attempt on his South Boston liquor store ...

July 17 was, in many ways, the calm before the storm in the James “Whitey” Bulger trial. On the eve of Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi’s highly anticipated testimony, the prosecution called a number of witnesses to the stand, including a ...

For the second straight day, the start of the James “Whitey” Bulger case was delayed when a juror didn’t show up on time. After a 23-minute wait, the trial resumed with retired FBI agent Gerald Montanari finishing his testimony from ...

For the second time since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was implicated in the Boston Marathon bombings, his lawyers have asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler to appoint an additional member to the defense team. When Tsarnaev was charged in a criminal ...

It appears that the jury is the only thing that’ll stop U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper from sticking to her rigid trial schedule. Remarkably, today marked the first time since the James “Whitey” Bulger trial started that the ...

Each week of the James “Whitey” Bulger trial, something has gone down that makes you drop your jaw and say, “I can’t believe what I just saw.” This week’s testimony, which ended today with seven witnesses called to the stand, ...

The day began with an unusual request from James “Whitey” Bulger’s lawyers to “adjourn” the trial until next Tuesday. Defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr. told U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper that his team is overwhelmed with discovery and ...

To say that Courtroom 10 was “packed” for the arraignment of Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wouldn’t do justice to the scene that played out at Boston’s Moakley Courthouse on July 10. Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler, ...